Taliye landslide: Locals recall the horror of hillock crashing onto village, burying 84

On Sunday, the fourth day of tragedy, as politicians continued to visit this hamlet in Mahad tehsil, relatives said the priority should be to search for those missing and immediate financial help

Villagers from Taliye are broken to the core and recount the horror of a massive hillock that came crashing down on 32 houses in the village, leaving 84 persons buried and a trail of unprecedented devastation. So far, rescuers have retrieved 49 bodies while 35 are still missing.

Search and rescue operations were still on at the site of the landslide site in Taliye, Mahad, on Sunday. (HT PHOTO)

On Sunday, the fourth day of tragedy, as politicians continued to visit this hamlet in Mahad tehsil, relatives said the priority should be to search for those missing and immediate financial help.

Pratibha Nilesh Kondhalkar said, “I heard a loud roaring noise and immediately ran out of the house along with my 6-year old daughter and escaped death. I later came to know that it was an incident of a massive landslide where all the houses were buried under hillock debris and several villagers died. My father, mother and some relatives perished in the accident.”

Kondhalkar stays in a nearby village and was visiting her parents at the time of the incident.

Baban Sakpal, another villager, narrated that he heard a loud sound with villagers yelling that it was a landslide. “My three children and myself jumped out of the house and by God’s blessing we survived, while others were not lucky.”

Eyewitnesses maintain that as many as 10 children who were studying in a pre-primary school and 12 others from a high school were buried alive in the crash. The school building remains unaffected, but now there is not a single student left to come study in the school, villagers said.

Army soldier Amol Kondhalkar who was present at the spot along with NDRF personnel said, “My parents, including my wife, have been missing since the landslide. I came here yesterday after receiving the news about the tragedy and have been unsuccessfully involved in the search of their whereabouts.”

Post tragedy, the entire Mahad tehsil, which has been battered by incessant rains, is facing a shortage of drinking water.

District collector Nidhi Choudhari said that the intensity of rains has reduced and that the administration is taking several steps to alleviate the plight of the victims.

On Sunday, former chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Narayan Rane visited Taliye village in Raigad district to offer their condolences to the survivors and to take stock of the situation. Rane promised that houses would be reconstructed under the PM’s housing scheme.

Fadnavis advised the Maharashtra state government to coordinate with the Karnataka state government regarding regulations over water discharge from the Almatti dam, which according to him, will reduce the impact of floods in Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra. The former chief minister said that cash compensation must be paid to the flood and landslide victims and a special emphasis must be laid on ensuring basic provisions like drinking water supply, foodgrains and medicine.

Due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation, top priority must be given to restoration and protection of public health in the flood hit districts, Fadnavis said.

He also demanded rehabilitation of the entire Taliye village outside the danger zone with all civic amenities, urging the state government to adopt long-term planning, taking into account the rising incidents of floods and landslides in Konkan region.

Taliye has been the worst-hit villages in Raigad. Currently, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and district administration are carrying out the search operations to find out the missing persons.

Till date, 49 corpses have been recovered by the rescuers and search operations are underway to find the remainin.g

Inspector Rajesh Yawale said, “NDRF is continuing its search operations as 35 more bodies are to be recovered. Of the 49 bodies pulled out, nine are children, 17 are women and the remaining are males. We are using JCBs, search lights and other precision earthmoving equipment to remove the bodies from the rubble.”

‘Totally destroyed’

Vijay Pandey lost six of his family members in the landslide. “I was on the night shift and was stuck at my company. I spoke to my wife who told me not to come to the village. Even my daughter said that I should not come. Our house was strong and I did not expect that it would crash under the debris. I have lost my parents, uncle, wife, daughter and six-month old son in the landslide. Last year, a similar type of incident took place in our village and I was present at the spot helping senior citizens escape to safety. Before they could escape, they were all dead in the wet marshy debris. We are totally destroyed. It is our humble prayer to the administration to stand by us in this crisis,” he said, bursting into tears